Plane tickets

It’s been a busy few weeks in southern California, working, saving our money, and getting ready for the trip.  We’ve had a few exciting developments recently. 

1)     Finally we’ve figured out a basic route through South America! After looking though our maps, researching cool national parks and historical sites, reading stories from other cycle tourist who have gone through the area, and talking to our friends who have lived or visited these places, we’ve been able to develop a basic plan of attack.  At times we’ll be following the Pan-American Highway, but for most of the time we’ll be off exploring other destinations.  To be honest, much of this route is subject to change based on local conditions and recommendations, but it’s a good place to start.

2)     We’ve tested the SPOT! We’ve figured out how to personalize the messages we’d like to send on our SPOT GPS device, and successfully sent text and e-mail messages. This little orange guy is going to be a great asset to our trip because it will allow our families and friends to track our progress on a detailed digital map as we travel.

3)     We’ve been researching required vaccinations and travel insurance.  Vaccinations are pretty straightforward, but there are a plethora of insurance options out there, and it’s going to be a challenge finding the right one.  Whatever we pick, it looks like we’re going to have to spend some  money getting some medical insurance coverage and immune system boosting before our departure.  Both worth the cost in the long run.

4)     Most exhilarating: we bought plane flights! It’s official. We both now have flights to Deadhorse, Alaska for June 6^th.  I love one-way plane tickets.  Adventure is in the works.

paullus23.deviantart.com

As soon as we get our REI dividend back, we’re going to be finalizing our gear and preparing for an epic spring break trip  (the week of April 12^th) involving biking to and backpacking in Kings Canyon National Park.  It will be the first true test of our gear and endurance.  We can’t wait.

Progress, Little By Little

In the last few weeks, we've procured rechargeable batteries, maps for every country we'll be visiting except the US, and bear canisters.

We're relieved these things have arrived. The questions dictating which things to get are never-ending. Which bear canister is lightest, is large enough to fit sufficient food and small enough to fit in our backpacks, and is within our price range? Which maps and guidebooks are the most recently updated, best quality, and have an appropriate scale? Which batteries can we recharge with the dynamo hub and will function in a SteriPen, SPOT, digital camera, high-power bicycle light, and variable-output headlamp? It takes so much time, energy, and money for long-distance travel greenhorns like us just to get the right gear, and that's only the beginning!

The maps, to me, are the most exciting thing we've gotten so far. Even though the future planning of a more specific route means hours of research, I feel akin to Audrey Sutherland in Paddling North:

"Some musicians can look at a sheet of music and hear the melody and the rhythm. Their faces light up as they read down the page, hearing it so clearly. This map told me of the mountains and bays of southern Baranof Island. 'Look there at the head of Gut Bay,” I said to myself. “You could follow the stream to the lake, but I wonder how much underbrush there is. Look, you could bushwhack this pass over to the next lake and the next.'
My excitement was building."

I'm in a coffee shop right now in Big Bear, and my map of Mexico is spread out over the table in front of me. There's no one else around to call me obnoxious for taking up the whole table (and some of the next), or maybe crazy for talking to myself and gesticulating (just a little bit) when I see some fantastic topography. My excitement is building, too. The Volcan de las Tres Virgenes is right next to the road; could we climb it? That primary highway: does it have a shoulder? I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. What lies ahead?

Last night, as I traced the Pan-American Highway through South America, our friend Kate was nice enough to talk with us about her experiences in Bolivia. She love, love, loved it. Could not recommend the country higher. It's friends like her, or Ian and Colette who are currently exploring Ecuador and Colombia, or my relatives who have traveled extensively through Honduras and Nicaragua and took the time to share with me some of their wonderful travel stories and recommendations, who illumine with truth the oftentimes fearful, xenophobic reviews of many of these unfamiliar places.

For all that we're doing with the maps, we haven't touched the batteries. That's coming: tests for longevity when used in the SPOT are on the to-do list. Fortunately, we're getting some premature use from the bear canisters; they are filled to the brim with our favorite staples: peanuts, couscous, and oatmeal. If they can keep out bears, we hope they can keep out mice, too!

Prepping

A weekend unlike any other. Well, kind of like every weekend we are fortunate enough to enjoy. We climbed some mountains, explored some new areas, and worked a little bit on preparing for the journey. Gates of the Arctic maps are now printed and ready. In hindsight, it would have been less expensive and easier to just buy the Trails Illustrated map. Oh well. Live and learn. Theirs might be laminated and have all kinds of pretty colors and facts, but ours, downloaded from the US Geological Survey website and printed at a local printing place, are more zoomed in! Yeah!
We also continued to plan the route through South America. This is going to be something we decide on a rolling basis as we're there, but we did decide to use the Pan-American Highway as a base. The "Where" page has been updated to reflect the general route. We're still researching areas of interest (mountains that are climbable without technical gear) and will update the "Where" page when we reach some conclusions.
Come to think of it, this weekend was actually pretty special. I said goodbye to my good old Merrell Moabs. They have seen me through probably 2,000 miles walking, and this weekend they saw me through a final trek around our backyard (read: 26 miles up San Gorgonio Peak to 11,502 feet). Adios, amigos.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! It's a work in progress, and we're adding to it continually as we plan. Let us know if there's anything else you would like to see on here, or if there's anything that's unclear. We'll post more frequently as the date of departure approaches, early June as of now.